PORTUGAL continued!!!

Okayyy, so where did I leave off? Back to Madeira- the afternoon of the first day after all the tobaggan/ cable car adventures, I managed to convince Chrissie and Tevia to come with me on a bus to the center of the island where there is this little village in the middle of a huge canyon/ valley called Curral Das Freiras. The story is that back in the day a bunch of nuns hid there from pirates and now its this kind of touristy, but not, place where you can get your picture taken with a cut-out nun. Random. The town is tiny, tiny and its in the center of these huge mountains and we got there by the local bus, cutting across mountainsides and nearly falling down cliffs. It was nervewracking!! The bus dropped us off around 7 and apparently we were the only tourists in Curral Das Freiras haha... So we wandered the deserted streets and took pictures of the mountains. It really was insanely beautiful, but Chrissie and Tevia, both being from New York City thought that we had found the end of the earth--this nothing village in the middle of an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I think they were kind of freaking out. Anyways, we found some local restaurant where we were the only customers and some adorable 15 year old boy native to Curral Das Freiras was our waiter. We asked him if he liked living here (he spoke pretty good English) and he said he thought it was beautiful but everyone gossips all the time and one day he would like to leave. He then proceeded to point out his house which was a little shack down farther in the valley. We talked to him probably for 45 minutes and he told us how he was a folk-dancer and has never been to Portugal mainland. I think he thought we were funny and we thought he was funny too. It's amazing how different his life is to ours. We caught the last bus back to Funchal and by that time the sun had set and we were ready to get out of that little village in the valley. The bus driver blasted techno as we sped through the mountains being the only people on the bus save a local drunk who was dancing to the techno all the way home. Locuras. Here is a link to a picture of the town. It was soooo pretty!!

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.olhares.com/data/big/263/2639358.jpg&imgrefurl=http://br.olhares.com/curral_das_freiras_madeira_portugal_foto2639358.html&usg=__Q6u6_U7NsO6R4dFkwCCdGoTY6_4=&h=750&w=551&sz=338&hl=en&start=17&sig2=s3Bc0l-hx6H2iV5xqXWAuQ&zoom=1&tbnid=8o_IQwH0VF5uZM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=101&ei=bfi_TZ3QI8aZ8QP66IHYBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcurral%2Bdas%2Bfreiras%2Bmadeira%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D607%26tbm%3Disch0%2C228&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=484&page=2&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:17&tx=55&ty=56&biw=1280&bih=607

The next day I was intent on hiking. Madeira is famous for its hikes and levada walks. Levadas are basically like little aqueduct/canal channel type things that weave through the wilderness and bring water into the towns. There are literally MILES and MILES of these canals throughout the mountains and and forests and towns so many of the walks are based on following the levadas. There are hundreds and hundreds of walks and there are some amazing landscapes and scenery to be discovered. Anyway, since we couldn't rent a car and public transportation couldn't really get us to a trailhead, Chrissie and I signed up for a full-day group hike along a two levadas called 25 Fountains and Risco Waterfall. The company told us they would pick us up on the road near our hotel so we waited anxiously at 9 in the morning in our hiking gear to see the group. As we are standing there, all of a sudden this older man with a long beard and ponytail, and thick vest with patches, and basically swimming goggles comes up to us and goes "Are you Russian?!?" "I've been looking for you!!". Chrissie and I stood there for a second and assured him we weren't Russian and that we had no idea who he could have mistaken us for. He seemed intent on convincing us that he was sent to get us, when finally it clicked that Chrissie's last name is RUSSO and we used her name to make our booking for the hike. He thought it was our nationality. Russian. It all got cleared up that we were indeed the girls for the hike and he told us he would be our guide for the day. Phenomenal. I already forgot his name but this man was one of the biggest characters I have ever met in my life. He was born and raised in Madeira and basically hikes all day and is one of the most popular guides on the island. He told us a number of stories throughout the day about how his daughter owned 15 cats, how he escorted hundreds of rats out of his house rather than killing them, and how he met a rich American couple that hired him to be their private guide. Random. Anyway, the other people on our group were just as interesting and I can't even tell you how funny our Motley crew was. First of all it was Chrissie and I, the two silly American girls, an older Spanish man who was super interested in all the flora and fauna of Madeira, an older Finnish couple who I think were ready for a serious group and a serious hike, two 75 year old French women who were so slow that we had to leave them behind, and an adorable Portuguese family- a dad and his two teenage kids that he basically dragged on the hike, and finally Mr. Madeira himself- our guide. The guide spoke like 5 different languages so he would be switching back and forth all day to interpret all the information on the hike to all the different nationalities, however he didn't speak any language well and would go on random rants all day, nearly spending an hour debating with the Portuguese dad about Portuguese health care and abortion. I don't even know haha. The actual hike was mind-blowing and beautiful/amazing/unbelievable doesn't even describe it. We were literally walking by waterfalls, through lush valleys, through secluded nature paradise, I was sooo in love with it all. We also had to walk 10 minutes through an underground tunnel. Which was actually really scary cause there was a point when we couldnt see a light on either side and the tunnel was super small and all we had were a few flashlights, water was dripping everywhere, and all Chrissie and I could think about was wow this is our life- following a crazy nature man through a tunnel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Crazy. The day was sooo much fun and our little group got to know each other and I was actually sad dropping off everyone at their respective hotels at the end of the day. The Portuguese family gave us their number to get into contact with them when we got to Lisbon, but it never really worked out that we could meet up. The main picture on my blog now is me on that hike!! That night Chrissie and I passed out. What a great, great day :)

Okay, thats all for now!!